[WikiEN-l] No wonder people don't realise that anyone can edit Wikipedia

Mon Dec 12 15:02:11 UTC 2005

On 12/12/05, Steve Bennett <wiki at stevage.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>  I've always had my bookmark set to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page,
> where it's prominently written "Welcome to Wikipedia, the free
> encyclopedia that anyone can edit".  However, for any visitor who comes
> directly through www.wikipedia.org, this is not the case.  There is not
> a single reference on the page to the nature of Wikipedia, other than
> "The Free Encyclopaedia".
>
> Search an item, say, "Matt Drudge", and you will be taken directly to a
> fairly authoritative looking bio.  Again, the nature of Wikipedia is not
> made clear anywhere - most people will read "The Free Encyclopedia" as a
> reference to price, since many sites on the net proclaim to be "free".
> In fact, apart from the links "[edit]" and "edit this page", there is
> nothing which would suggest to the user that this page could be edited
> by them - or anyone else.  This page could easily become another
> Siegenthaler - if the paragraph about Drudge's sexuality is made up (and
> you'd have to read an 8 page newspaper article to decide), then you
> couldn't blame him for getting angry.
>
> Can we blame people for thinking Wikipedia is more authoritative than it
> is? Is it not time that a banner "Anyone could have written this.
> Including you." appeared for anonymous users?  What exactly, if anything
> other than possible "aesthetics", would be the argument against warning
> users against taking Wikipedia at its word?
>
> Steve

Not our juristiction. You would need to talk to the people over at meta.

--
geni